WAR? TERROR?—IS THERE A DIFFERENCE?

By Edwin Cooney

I suppose one of the things that makes me a bit strange is that I enjoy confessing. There’s something cleansing about it. So, here we go!

For nearly five years after the events of September 11th, 2001, I believed in the War on Terror.

Why, you ask? Well…well…well…after all, Lyndon B. Johnson (“Daddybird)” had waged a War on Poverty, hadn’t he? (A war, incidentally, that Republicans gleefully point out LBJ couldn’t win).

Politicians, movie actors, and other celebrities have appeared in countless commercials over the years to wage war on Communism via Radio Free Europe and diseases such as cancer and diabetes (which were merely extensions of FDR’s “March of Dimes” to conquer polio). Additionally, Harry Chapin and other musicians waged individual and even laudable battles or wars on hunger. Hence, if poverty, disease and communism were worthy objects of war, why not terrorism?

Slowly, it dawned on me. War is terror. The fact was that I’ve spent much of my life terrified about one thing or another and much that I was terrified about was the prospect of war.

During the early fifties, it was a bit frightening to be called to an air raid drill designed to protect me from “communist bombs.” In the fall of 1957, my World Series dreams were interrupted on Friday, October 4th — between the second and third game of the series —by the announcement that Russia had launched Sputnik. (Note: the Milwaukee Braves subsequently obliterated my World Series dreams by beating the Yankees in seven games.) Shortly after Russia demonstrated its rocket prowess, some senators began to speculate that Russia’s real reason for a space program was to construct a successful “FOB” (Fractional Orbital Bomb) which would enable the hot-tempered vodka-swilling Nikita Khrushchev to destroy “America the Beautiful” from space. We were defenseless against such a possibility it was asserted.

Between 1959 and 1961, an ongoing Berlin crisis dominated the news. Although tensions were lessened when Khrushchev visited the United States at Ike’s invitation in the fall of 1959, Khrushchev’s temper snapped the next spring after Francis Gary Powers was shot down just before a May 15, 1960 scheduled “summit meeting” of the leaders of communist and free Europe.

Finally, there was the blood-freezing terror of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Over and over again, there was talk that World War III could begin if the U.S. Navy were forced to destroy a Soviet vessel laden with military supplies that refused to stop for inspection at a checkpoint in the American blockade of Cuba.

All of the above events came to mind as I learned a week ago of Faisal Shahzad’s attempted act of terrorism in Times Square. Talk show hosts and callers understandably worry about our security. United States Senators Lieberman and McCain seem to think we’ll be safer if a terrorist suspect is automatically stripped of his or her citizenship and thus tried by a military tribunal rather than being tried in federal court. Obviously, some believe in due process until it is tested.

Inevitably, the democratic processes of our splendid though far from perfect system will reveal the reasons why Faisal Shahzad was almost able to flee to Dubai. With time, the incredulity that Shahzad was read his Miranda Rights as he was taken into custody will fade away. Perhaps someday Americans will find a way to really and truly depoliticize immigration reform. The fact that we’ve been terrified since 9/11 is obvious in that newly passed draconian Arizona immigration law.

Of course, we must protect ourselves against actions designed to spread terror within our society. My guess is that’s exactly what we’ll do. However, it’s also important to understand that the real cause of our dilemma is ignorance on all sides of what it takes to live peacefully with one another in this world. Our enemies are far less equipped than we are to manage a prosperous society. Thus, I insist that if we calmly think things through and avoid panic or -- if you prefer – terror, we will prevail.

Yes, indeed, terror psychologically plays a huge role in war, but terror, one of many human frailties, extends way beyond war. World War I, “the war to end all wars,” should have taught us that war doesn’t end war. War and terror are forever linked. Terror may even be the father of war as fear is the father of anger. Our leadership is honor bound to protect us. Hence, it is vital that they state the case that exists rather than the case that causes its own brand of soul-destroying terror.

Many years ago, I read and contemplated for the very first time a quotation the great author Herman Wouk placed at the beginning of his novel “The Winds of War”. It states as follows:

“Peace is not the absence of war. Peace is a state of mind.”

That’s the way I see it! What say you?

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY